ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" release says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $2.33 billion to $3.790 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 13, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds decreased by $910 million, taxable non-government funds increased by $2.34 billion, and tax-exempt funds increased by $900 million.
ICI's weekly report says, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $13.47 billion to $1.276 trillion. Taxable government money market fund assets in the retail category decreased by $4.03 billion to $220.12 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $7.64 billion to $781.04 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $1.81 billion to $274.46 billion."
It continues, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $15.80 billion to $2.514 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable government money market fund assets increased by $3.12 billion to $1.111 trillion, taxable non-government money market fund assets increased by $9.98 billion to $1.213 trillion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.71 billion to $190.40 billion."
While money fund assets (barely) broke a three week losing streak, assets remain down by $40.5 billion year-to-date, and they remain $135 billion below their record high of $3.922 billion set the week ended Jan. 14, 2009.
In other news, see the article "Money market turmoil isn't scaring many" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which says, "Crane, the founder and president of Crane Data, thinks the vast majority of investors will stick with their money funds, even with low rates and without government insurance."
It quotes Crane, "The biggest argument for why the industry won't be much smaller is that it isn't much smaller. You've seen an impressive series of stresses, and yet they're still at $3.8 trillion in assets." The Post adds, "That's down only slightly from a peak of $3.9 trillion, reached in January. Investors seem to agree. They've voted with their dollars, and their verdict is that the money fund isn't broken."
